Music: Greenday - Dookie (among others)
I woke early again this morning. Checking my watch on the sideboard revealed the rather dissapointing sight of 4:45am. I had a number of things circling in my head and I struggled for some time to get rid of them so I could get back to sleep. I'd intentionally set my alarm early so I could take some photos of the reflections in the Black Dragon Park again with early morning light (the park only opens at 8am but was a 15 minute stroll away) but when it went off I decided on more dozing to offset waking so early.
Come 9am, when I eventually did get up I spent a while packing and sorting out my stuff again. While doing so I found the the hotel's "fixing the missing sock" was to put the two odd socks (only one of which was mine and big enough for my foot) back in my room. I thought I'd take it up with them later, when I actually had someone who could speak the same language as the staff to help!
I wondered up to the park and took a number of photos, almost all of which didn't come out as well as those I'd already taken and then headed back to the hotel via a restaurant. Here I had a nice chat / debate / friendly arguement about religion and politics in the news, evolution and free will with an American Christian. After that I had about enough time to get back to my room and get my bags out to meet Alvin, who was there to pick me up with the driver.
At this point I was asked to pay for the laundry but in doing so I refused to pay for the washing of the pair of socks that they had lost. They kept pointing to the note on the washing lable, made by the person collecting the washing, that there were a pair of odd socks. There were indeed a pair of odd socks, as I lost two unmatching socks while in Bolivia. They'd given me two pairs of unmatching socks and refused to apologise and it was as much as it was worth just to get them to knock the 50p off the total of the washing (out of principle) rather than asking them to refund the cost of the lost pair of socks! In the end I decided it wasn't worth the argument as they quite clearly don't have a western take on customer service. I very nearly opened up my main bag to show them the mismatching pair of socks that I'd given them and they'd washed for me.
Grr.
Anyway... Enough about the £2 sock. It was the principle of the thing.
From there I was whisked to the airport and reminded of my connecting flight details again before saying goodbye to Alvin for the last time. I was a little sorry to be parted as we got on very well and found it very easy to talk.
My first flight was to Kunming and from there I transferred to Guilin. The only slight hiccup in the plan was my slight confusion when looking for the flight details to find where to check in. The board displaying the flights was showing the boarding times of the flights and I only knew the departure time of mine, so didn't look carefully enough at the scrolling display for the first couple of rotations until I spotted the flight number I'd been given.
While waiting for the second flight I bought a tube of pringle like crisps to ease my slight hunger. On opening them I found the contents to be completely smashed. I'd really like to know how you can so utterly destroy a tube of crisps like that, leaving no more than a quarter of a crisp as the biggest part, without making a dent on the outside of the packaging!
The only notible thing about my second flight was the "chicken rice" meal which contained chicken pieces that had the consistancy and texture of a mushroom. I'm guessing it must have been chicken, although what part is a question I'd rather not have answered.
I met my guide once I'd got my bags on arrival in Guilin and was then ferried to my hotel for the evening. The hotel is on the edge of the canal that makes up the old moat of the city. Around this I could see numerous lights and so set out with my camera and tripod to take some photos. I spotted a half moon bridge a few hundred meters away and so wondered over to that to find two of them side by side. The area was swarming with young couples sitting on the benches by the canalside. Further on I heard a loud cough as I followed a tiny cobbled path while trying to get a better shot of the reflections in the water. I decided to beat a hasty retreat...
Anyway... It's way past my bedtime as I best leave things there.
Night all.
No comments:
Post a Comment